Monday Medley

What we read while accidentally scoring a game-winning touchdown…

• Ken Jennings broke down the 10 best Super Bowls for trivia fans.

• In preparation for Facebook’s upcoming IPO (which will make millionaires out of some unexpected people), Mark Zuckerberg wrote a letter declaring the company’s mission statement. But what does Facebook actually sell?

• Two excellent but sad magazine pieces on suicide amongst gay teens: Rolling Stone tells the story of one small town’s “war” on gay teens, while Ian Parker of The New Yorker dispels a lot of the myths surrounding the tragic suicide of Tyler Clementi in this in-depth story. The lesson: Suicide is more complicated than most people think.

• Frank Rich analyzes Mitt Romney’s strange emptiness (though this story certainly makes him seem human, and even admirable). Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich hates Muslims.

• This week in Tales of the American Police State…

• Bryan Caplan’s opening statement on how deserving the poor are…

• What’s the deal with Lana Del Rey? Why does everyone hate her (except for Whitney Cummings)? Is she terrible, underrated, or just boringly mediocre? If she’s making Pitchfork angry, she’s probably a force for good…

• Some interesting, if expected, findingson male-female attractiveness differentials.

Monday Medley

What we read while gays finally felt welcomed in New York…

• New York passed a same-sex marriage law last week, and President Obama’s views on the subject are now “evolving” (for anyone who believed his previous opposition was anything other than political). It looks like public opinion is finally turning, not that it should matter.

• Harris Wittels ranks the world’s best Humblebraggers.

• Louis C.K. was interviewed by Pitchfork. Josh and John S reacted to last week’s premiere of Louie.

• Joe Posnanski’s profile of presumptive AL MVP Jose Bautista.

• The New Yorker breaks down the Galleon insider trading case.

• Eamonn Brennan captured our thoughts about the NBA Draft, even before it happened.

• The culture wars in Europe, including usage of the term zeitgeist, early and often.

• Finally, the sports aesthetic links: the Bills got new (and better) uniforms, they’re officially the Winnipeg Jets, and this is a really cool graphic of MLB logos.

Aught Lang Syne: Tim’s Video Hitlist

I want to make one thing clear from the start: This is my hitlist. John, Josh, and Pierre had nothing to do with it, and I don’t want to sully their reputations or that of the blog as a whole in presenting it. You know what I think about music.

But the following is a list of eight music videos from the Aughts, loosely defined as “my favorites.” I was late to the music video party, not getting MTV until it stopped playing music videos.*

*I mean “getting” there in the sense that I did not have it as a channel on my television. I did understand what MTV was.

If you want to make the case that I don’t “get” music videos, go ahead.

Brief Complaints About Pitchfork’s Latest List

Pitchfork recently released its list of the 500 best songs of the decade to predictable controversy. The truth is, I’ve long since passed the point at which Pitchfork’s opinion still bothers me. Pitchfork has a built-in audience that it constantly has to stay one step ahead of, so the lists and reviews it churns out are alternately predictable and erratic. It may seem capricious and arbitrary as to whom it deigns to support with its god-like power over hipsters, but there is a method to its madness.

It comes as no surprise, then, that certain songs by trendy and atrocious acts like Antony and the Johnsons, Cat Power, and Sufjan Stevens make this list.

What really puzzles me, though, is when crappy, uncool songs make the list. It makes absolutely no sense to me that a list that has Spoon’s “The Underdog” at 130 would also have “Party Hard” at 129. Andrew W.K.? Really? I used to play Madden 2003 on mute to avoid hearing that song. And if you’re going to include two Coldplay songs, don’t you also have to include “Vertigo” by U2 or some crap like that?